The season of the dates begins when the sun hovers
on this exact position in the morning
fills my balcony and living room
luminous shadows
most high
the brightness of my arrival one year ago
when everything seemed possible
when I was surely filled with the beauty
of this place
the sun a scarlet ball behind the trees
a grayish sky heralding heat
late in August
You began to leave my life
while the days grew longer
while the dates ripened
invisible, then green, now orange
dripping on the parking lot
squashed
all this waste for just one night
I will never think of dates the same again
of you, in the dry heat of the I-10
at the plantation store
How elusive everything seems
in brimming light
a bitter sound, dates falling to the ground
A student at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies, Julia Knobloch published her debut poetry collection, “Do Not Return,” with Broadstone Books and has a new chapbook forthcoming with Ben Yehuda Press.
